Gross indecency is a crime in some parts of the English-speaking world, originally used to criminalize sexual activity between men that fell short of sodomy, which required penetration.
Turing, who had been convicted of gross indecency for consensual, private homosexual acts, received a posthumous pardon in 2013.
[2] In 2017, under the Alan Turing law, all men convicted of gross indecency due to consensual, private sexual acts were pardoned.
When psychiatrists determined that he was unlikely to stop having sex with men, he was declared a dangerous offender and sentenced to life in prison.
[4] Gross indecency between male persons of any age, in public or private, is a felony punishable by up to five years' imprisonment.
Historically, the definition of gross indecency was unclear, and courts relied on nebulous notions such as the "common sense of society".